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Aug 22, 2013
This week's theme
Baddies from fiction

This week's words
bluebeard
procrustes
siren
gorgon
Dr. Strangelove

Gorgon
Medusa, a gorgon

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

gorgon

PRONUNCIATION:
(GOR-guhn)

MEANING:
noun: An ugly, repulsive, or terrifying woman.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Gorgon, any of the three monstrous sisters Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa in Greek mythology, who had snakes for hair. They turned into stone anyone who looked into their eyes. From Greek gorgos (dreadful). Earliest documented use: 1398.

USAGE:
"Without warning, she fell to the floor in labor pains, screaming like a gorgon."
Douglas Coupland; Miss Wyoming; Random House; 2000.

See more usage examples of gorgon in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. -Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and novelist (1811-1896)

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